What Do You Want To Be, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, that's the way God is.

He wants to know, are you going to be faithful in these little things? That's the first thing that he asked. You see, I felt compelled to teach. That's just what happened when I got saved. The Apostle Paul felt compelled to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Now I'm going to ask you something. What did you feel? When you got saved, what did you feel? Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. This past week, I asked my eight-year-old grandson, what do you want to be when you grow up? And calmly, he just turned to me and succinctly said, an artist. And I almost responded. I wanted to talk about a lot of things, but I decided not to.

I mean, you know, like you usually have to be dead before you sell your paintings, things like that. But I realized maybe there's nothing to say. I mean, I asked him exactly the same question at Christmas time. And he told me he wanted to be the guy who drives the ice cream truck through the neighborhood. So that's what it means to be eight years old. When I was eight years old, I wanted to be a cowboy.

I missed it by that much. What do you want to be? As a Christian, what do you want to be spiritually when you grow up?

What is it you want? You see, in this case, by the way, there is a right answer. You could answer it this way. To be greatly used of God.

That's an answer. To be greatly used of God. As a believer in Jesus Christ, who wouldn't want that? And I think that's a viable thing to say.

I hope it's something that you think. But if you were greatly used by God, what would your life look like? Would it be any different than it is now?

Or would it be about the same? What would be the limitations that you face to be greatly used by God? Your age? Your spiritual maturity? How long you've been in the Lord? Your past?

Your gifts? You see, what would limit you in being greatly used by God? The Lord has given us a wonderful example to give us a great deal of insight into ourselves when it comes to the question, what do we want to be when we spiritually grow up? He is the Apostle Paul. Open your Bibles to Galatians chapter one. The message of the book is you cannot, absolutely cannot modify the grace of God. That when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is faith and faith alone that saves an individual. There was a group of men called Judaizers who followed Paul into Galatia, and those men decided to discredit the gospel and to discredit the Apostle Paul. They discredited the gospel by saying, in fact, in Acts chapter 15 and verse one, it says it succinctly that they believe that, no, you do need to believe in Jesus Christ and you need to be circumcised.

Then you are saved. And Paul is furious and shocked that the Galatians would even listen to such a thing. And so Paul said concerning these Judaizers, look, that is a completely different gospel. And if there's one thing you get out of the book of Galatians, you should get that. When you try to add anything to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for someone to get saved, you are preaching a different gospel.

If you're saying, no, you need to believe in Jesus and you need to do good works, you need to believe in Jesus and you need to be baptized, you need to believe in Jesus and you need to do the sacraments, you need to believe in Jesus and you need to do something else, that's a different gospel. And Paul is furious the whole way through. And the second thing he said, anyone who does that should be anathema, accursed. He said, if I do it, I should be accursed. If angels do it, they should be accursed.

If anybody does it, they should be accursed. But the Judaizers not only discredited Paul, I mean the gospel, but they also discredited the Apostle himself. And that's where we pick it up in verse 11. The Apostle Paul, first talking about the gospel, said, For I would, he said, have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul says, look, I want to tell you something. The gospel that I preach is not like the gospel that you were preaching. The gospel that you're preaching, Judaizers, is a gospel that you heard the rabbis teaching. It is a gospel where you took an amalgamation of both the grace of God, the gift of God in Jesus Christ, and Jewish law. And you put it all together.

I didn't get any of that. The gospel that I am preaching, I got directly from Jesus Christ. In fact, notice the word is, he says, a revelation that came from Jesus Christ. It's an amazing term, just like the book of Revelation. Paul says, this is a secret that was revealed to me by Christ.

Christ sort of pulled back the curtain and said, Paul, this is it. He says, so I didn't get that from men. He said, but you want to discredit me. He says in verse 13, for you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute. He says, the Church of God beyond measure.

I tried to destroy it. The first thing I want you to realize this morning is this. Your pre-conversion days do not limit you serving God. Think of the Apostle Paul. He said, look, if you're going to say you're limited by what happened before you came to Christ, how about me? And when you go to the book of Acts, chapter seven, near the end of the book, Stephen is being martyred.

He's being stoned. And it says those who were witnesses against Stephen came and they put their robes at a young man named Saul's feet. That tells me that Saul, as the Pharisee, was the one who orchestrated this.

He is the one that wanted this done. In fact, in chapter eight and verse one of the book of Acts, he said he was in total agreement with them for killing Stephen, for making him the church's first martyr. And then it said he went about doing everything he could to destroy the church. He arrested people. He incarcerated people. In fact, when he is converted in Acts chapter nine, he's on the way to Damascus for one reason. He heard there were Christians there and he's going there and he's going to arrest them and he's going to bring him back to Jerusalem.

Give him to the priest and likely incarcerate them again. That's Paul. Paul says, look, you know what kind of man I was. Does that surprise you?

It shouldn't. What kind of man was Peter before he was converted? He wasn't a religious zealot like Paul, but what kind of man was he?

Common, blue collar, fisherman. He wasn't eloquent. In fact, when he spoke, those who were more sophisticated made fun of him.

They thought he really sort of had a hillbilly accent from our point of view, an uneducated and unsophisticated man. Did the Lord use him? What about Matthew? If I could use today's analysis of Matthew, I'd tell you he was a sociopath. He's a criminal. He's greedy. He's a thief. He steals as a tax gatherer and he steals from his own people being a tax gatherer for Rome.

And did God use Matthew? What about Mary Magdalene? Immoral. An immoral woman.

How close was her relationship to Jesus Christ? What about you? What's your background?

Before you came to Christ, what are you like? You see, that doesn't limit you at all. You could be one of two different kinds of people. You could be licentious. Licentious people are eat, drink, and be married for tomorrow we die.

Money people. You're the kind of person that enjoyed every single weekend of sin that you could get in. That's just what you live for. You just love that.

Anything, anytime, anywhere. That's what you wanted to do. That's licentiousness. You could be legalistic. In other words, you were religious. You're the kind of person that crossed your religious T's and dotted your religious I's. Any time a door opened in a church, you were there. You see, you were religious. You could be that person.

That's the way Paul was. You could be like a McDonald's menu. You could be a combo. You see, you could have been religious, and many of you were, so don't laugh.

Religious on Sunday, and then licentious Monday through Saturday. It doesn't matter what you were. You see, that's one of the great things about God. The apostle Paul was not proud of what he had done.

But he never let his past limit his present and his future. Your pre-conversion days do not limit you at all in serving God. Notice Paul says in verse 13, You have heard my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church, the church of God beyond my church.

I tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. What an interesting thing that Paul was saying there.

To you and me, he's saying this. Do you know God was aware of your past before you have ever experienced your past? Do you think that God knew that the apostle Paul would be a Pharisee of Pharisees and a persecutor of the church? Do you think God knew that?

Yes. Then when do you think God knew it? Well, you always knew it. He's God. That's why Paul says this in 15, When God, who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and he called me through his grace. That's God's perspective.

But here's what's really, I think, really interesting about it. That's not just Paul we're talking about. That's you.

That's me. You see, when did God decide that he wanted a ministry for you, that he wanted you to do something for his glory? When you were in your mother's womb, and actually even before. In fact, in other places, the New Testament writers say before the foundation of the world. Because, see, God is not bound by time. He's timeless. He's outside of space and time. And so Paul says, even before I was ever born.

That's not unusual. Jeremiah the prophet in the Old Testament, God told him, I set you apart in your mother's womb. You see, so there's no accident that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and that God has a ministry for you. He's not asking you to be an apostle. But he certainly is asking you to live for his glory and to do something for his kingdom. Notice what Paul's was. He said, he revealed his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Paul said, I knew exactly what he wanted me to do. Take the gospel to the Gentiles.

Wow. And then he says this. He says, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus.

Now Arabia, Arabia is east of Damascus all the way down to the Sinai Peninsula. What is Paul saying? He said, I went out on my own.

I wasn't alone though. Jesus Christ was with me. You see, Paul went into Arabia by himself. And Jesus Christ ministered to Paul.

Doing what? Well, back in verse 12 he said, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Here's what I find fascinating. The Judaizers said Paul's not really an apostle. Because the apostles all were with Jesus Christ. Paul can't be an apostle. They spent those three years with Jesus Christ. And then they became apostles. That's why Paul's illegitimate. He's not an apostle.

Well, look at the first few words of verse 18. Then three years later. How much time did Paul spend with Jesus Christ in Arabia? Three years. How much time did all the other disciples spend with Christ when he was on earth?

Three years. Paul didn't get short changed. In fact, Paul got more. Because Paul, there was just him and Jesus. And so consequently, that's why Paul writes almost all the New Testament epistles. That's why Paul figured it out. That's why Paul writes a book like Romans or Ephesians.

Because Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear to him what the truth was. Paul said I'm no second rate apostle. I spent my three years. He says then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become, now don't miss the word, acquainted with Cephas. That's Peter. He didn't say I went to Jerusalem so that Peter would ordain me. That Peter would recognize me. That Peter would put his hands on me. That Peter would give me the blessing.

Not at all. He said I went up to Jerusalem to just get acquainted with Peter. That's all. In fact, notice what he says. And I stayed with him 15 days.

That's not very long. He said but I wanted to tell Peter what God was doing in my life. And so I did. He says but I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Notice he said I didn't see anybody else but that. He says now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God, I'm not lying.

He says then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. So Paul says it's really clear to him. He says look, I'm no second rate apostle. And by the way, I am who I am through the power of Jesus Christ and the grace of God.

People recognize that but people don't make that. You aren't used by God because somebody ordained you. Somebody put their hands on you. Somebody gave you the blessing.

No. You're used by God because of God. And by the way, that's the case for all the disciples, not just Paul.

But Paul's making it abundantly clear, I didn't need any of those guys at all. I got it directly from the Lord. You see, your pre-conversion days won't limit you in serving God and God will prepare you to fulfill his calling.

God will prepare you to do whatever it is you have to have done. Now, the apostle Paul, did he have a very big job to do? Yes, a big job. Do I have a job to do? Yes, not nearly as big a job. Do you have a job to do?

Yes, every single one of us do. That's the beauty of all this. That's what Paul was trying to say. Notice then he says, I was still unknown by sight in the churches of Judea which were in Christ. He says, but only they kept hearing, he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they were glorifying God because of me. You see, what was Paul doing? I think a lot of us think when Saul of Tarsus got saved on the road to Damascus, supernaturally saved, then all of a sudden God said, you are an apostle. Write the book of Romans.

Move around the world. None of that happened. None of that happened.

What happened? Just little things. Paul went to the churches of Damascus in the synagogues. And in the synagogues, he gave an apologetic for Jesus Christ. He befuddled the Jews. He was preaching right off the bat because he had a burden to do it.

But almost no one knew anything that Paul was doing. In fact, in just a moment, notice the first phrase of chapter 2 verse 1, then after an interval of 14 years. So how long was Paul in preparation before he even got going? Seventeen years. Seventeen years. Now you just say, well, what a waste of time. No, not at all. God is never in a hurry.

Never. I mean, Moses spent 40 years in Egypt in Pharaoh's household. Then he spent 40 years tending sheep in the land of Midia. Then he was ready. You see, God's never in a hurry in your life.

That's not his point. But something is happening here with Paul. God wanted to see something about Paul. Will Paul be faithful in the little things? Will Paul be faithful in the small things in the beginning? Because then he can give him great things to do. Jesus said, if you are faithful in the little things, then I will give you the responsibility of big things. But let's see, first of all, if you're faithful with little things. That's what he does to every single one of us.

That's what he did to me. When I got saved, I only had one passion, Jesus Christ. And my only other passion beside Jesus Christ was to know the word. And I went kind of crazy for the word of God.

Clearly. Could not stop reading and studying. Just could not. And it never dawned on me at that time that people would have to get involved.

I never really, I love the word of God, but people, you know, I just never really thought about that very much. But what would happen, especially to my wife or someone, anytime I learned something, I had to tell somebody. It wasn't enough that I learned it. I just had to tell somebody what I learned. That eventually led us to a church, a very liberal Protestant church, and the pastor asked me to teach a Sunday school class.

The first Bible study I led, the Gospel of John. Now, everybody in the class was old to me. I was in my early to mid-20s. Everyone was old, like I am now. Like, old.

But they were there. And so I thought, well, how am I going to teach the Gospel of John? So I went to a store and bought a book by A.W. Pink called The Gospel of John.

And it was about that thick. And I thought, well, there's a guy who spent some time in John. So I started reading it. And I would read what Pink wrote in the first eight verses of chapter one, make my notes, sort of memorize it, go in and teach them the first eight verses of chapter one. Now, if they said, wait a minute, wait a minute, what about this in John 6, 14? I don't know. I don't know anything beyond those first eight verses. When we get there, I'll know. If you ask me a question of another book in the Bible, my answer was, I have no idea.

But I'll try to find out. It was an interesting little class. Well, through a whole set of circumstances and Hodgkin's disease to the pastor, I got an opportunity to preach in that church. And when I was preaching in that church on one Sunday, never thought that would happen in my life. There was a man from another area who said they were without a pastor. Would I preach there?

I said, OK. So I started preaching there. Now, they had a mother church and a daughter church. The mother church had about 110 people, 120 people in it. That was the mother church. The daughter church, when everybody came, was like 25, OK? Now, I remember one summer day, no air conditioning, extremely hot, suit and tie.

That's the way it works. I went in, and one of the worst things that could happen, happened. Two families on the church went on vacation. Two families. I got to the pulpit, and there were two people sitting there.

Two people. Now, there was a choir behind me of two people and the organist, one person. So when it came time to preach, I asked, would the choir and the organist all move to the front? And they did. And then I found a little lectern, because the pulpit was built in, and I took the lectern down, stood in the front, and let them have it. Did the best that I could. That's a small thing.

But I never forgot it. Will you preach the word of God to five people in Conakinessing, Pennsylvania? Yes, I will. You see, that's the way God is. He wants to know, are you going to be faithful in these little things?

That's the first thing that he asks. You see, I felt compelled to teach. That's just what happened when I got saved.

The Apostle Paul felt compelled to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now I'm going to ask you something. What did you feel? When you got saved, what did you feel?

Let me ask it this way. What was your burden? Once you experienced the grace of God, what was your burden?

Was your burden the lost? Did you begin to think for the first time, there are so many people that I love and so many people I know that are lost, and I feel a burden to them? I want to share the gospel with them?

Or I know that there are people lost all over the world, and they want to go somewhere. That's sort of the calling of a missionary. Or I want to help people that go. I just want to give.

I just want to give to the people that get out there and get the gospel going. What was the burden that you felt? Did you feel that you wanted to help people? Did you feel a burden to help? Like, I am so blessed by Jesus Christ now. I just want to pitch in and help people. That's your ministry. What about encourage?

Did you think to yourself, I feel so good about experiencing the grace of God. I want to encourage people. There are so many people that are so sad.

There are so many people that have difficulties in their life, and I want to encourage them. Was that your burden that you felt? Did you feel a burden just to pray for people? I want to pray. I want to pray for my parents. I want to pray for my neighbors. I want to pray for my colleagues. The question is, what was your burden?

You see, what is it? Because it's so important because it's what God has called you from your mother's womb to be your ministry. It's the same for every single one of us. Your pre-conversion days do not limit you serving God, and God will prepare you to fulfill His calling on your life. And thirdly, God will often use spiritual people to confirm His calling on your life.

Not always, but often. Then Paul says, then after an interval of 14 years, 3 and 14 is 17, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. I took Titus along. And you've got to understand that what's interesting about this is Titus is Gentile. He's Greek.

He's not Jewish. He said, it was because of a revelation that I went up. And I love that. Don't miss that.

That's one of those little things you just read by. Paul didn't want to go, I don't think. Like, hey, don't you want to go to Jerusalem and meet John and James and Peter?

Not so much. So God can, Paul, you need to go to Jerusalem. He gets a direct revelation from God, so he said, okay, if God, you want me to go, I'm going. So he goes to Jerusalem and he said, I submitted to them the gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation. He said otherwise, he said, for fear that I might be running or I'd run in vain. That's a great point. Paul asked spiritually minded men, is my ministry viable?

Am I doing the right thing? The gospel that I preach, is it right? You see, would you validate what I'm saying? That's what Paul asked.

It's a legitimate question. Is my ministry viable? And Paul used that.

We all should use that. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.